18-11-2024 07:21 PM Jerusalem Timing

Libya Protesters Attack Muslim Brotherhood Offices after Killings

Libya Protesters Attack Muslim Brotherhood Offices after Killings

Protesters attacked offices of Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday as demonstrations sparked by a wave of assassinations in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent

Protesters attacked offices of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday as demonstrations sparked by a wave of assassinations in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent.
   Libya clashes
Youths stormed and ransacked the building housing the Brotherhood, after hundreds took to the streets overnight to denounce the assassination of Abdessalem al-Mesmari, an anti-Islamist lawyer who campaigned for a civil state.
  
The demonstrators accuse the Brotherhood of being behind killings that have targeted dozens of officers, especially in Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 armed uprising that ousted dictator Moamer Gaddafi.
  
In Tripoli, hundreds of people had gathered on Saturday morning at Martyrs' Square, in the heart of the capital, for a demonstration in "solidarity with Benghazi" and against the Islamist movement.
  
Chanting "the blood of martyrs was not shed in vain," the protesters converged on the square as they left mosques after morning prayers, an AFP correspondent said.
  
About 100 youths descended on the offices of the Brotherhood-backed Party of Justice and Construction, smashing its windows and looting its furniture.
 
Mesmari was shot dead as he left a mosque in Benghazi while an army and a police officer were killed in separate attacks in the restive city on Friday, a security official said. He was among the first Libyans who launched the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi and then took a prominent stand against the Brotherhood, which he accused of striving to take power in Libya despite popular discontent.